Rules Hub

A standard game is played to 11 points, but you must win by at least 2. So if the score reaches 10-10, play continues until one side is 2 points ahead (11-9, 12-10, 13-11, and so on). Only the team that is currently serving can add to their score — winning a rally while receiving just earns you the serve, not a point. Matches are usually best two games out of three.

After the serve, the receiving team must let the ball bounce before returning it. Then the serving team must also let that return bounce before hitting it back. Only after both of these bounces have happened can either side start volleying the ball (hitting it out of the air). This is the single rule that shapes almost all pickleball strategy — it's why rallies often start with a soft, patient exchange rather than both teams crashing the net immediately.

The court is 20 feet wide and 44 feet long, split by a net into two 22-foot halves. Each half has a 7-foot non-volley zone (the kitchen) next to the net, and the remaining area behind it is divided into a right/even and left/odd service court by a centerline. The net is 36 inches high at the sidelines and 34 inches in the middle.

A point starts with a serve. The receiver lets it bounce and returns it. The server's side lets that return bounce and hits it back. From that moment on, either side may volley or let the ball bounce again — the double bounce requirement is satisfied. The rally continues until the ball goes out of bounds, is hit into the net, bounces twice on one side, or some other fault occurs.

A legal serve is struck with an underhand motion — the paddle head must not be above the wrist at contact, and the ball must be struck below the navel. You can serve with a volley motion (hitting the ball out of the air) or use a "drop serve," where you drop the ball yourself and hit it after it bounces. With a drop serve, there's no restriction on how you drop the ball — you can even bounce it off the paddle first.

Since the 2021 rule update, players have two ways to serve: a traditional volley serve (struck out of the air with an underhand motion and contact below the waist) or a drop serve. For a drop serve, you simply drop or release the ball from any height and let it bounce, then hit it — there's no waist-height or paddle-angle restriction on a drop serve, and you're even allowed to toss it with a bit of backspin or bounce it off your paddle face first before hitting it. It's the easiest legal serve for beginners to learn.

Just like tennis, a pickleball serve always travels diagonally across the court into the opposite service court — never straight ahead. The serve must clear the non-volley zone entirely and land in bounds within the diagonal service box, beyond the kitchen line.

The server's own score (not the total, and not the opponent's score) decides which side they serve from: even score, serve from the right/even court; odd score, serve from the left/odd court. Both feet must be behind the baseline and within the imaginary extension of the sideline and centerline at the moment of contact — you can't step on or over the baseline until after you've hit the ball.

Each server gets a single attempt to put the ball in play. If it's a fault — into the net, out of bounds, into the kitchen, or an illegal motion — the serve immediately passes according to the normal side-out / server-change rules. There's no "first serve, second serve" like tennis.

This is the single most important scoring concept in pickleball. If the receiving team wins a rally, nothing is added to the score — they simply earn the right to serve next (a "side out"). Points only go on the board for the team that is currently serving when they win a rally.

Before every serve in doubles, the score is announced as three numbers — for example "4-6-2." The first number is the serving team's score, the second is the receiving team's score, and the third is which server on the serving team is up (1 or 2). Singles only uses two numbers, since there's no server-number concept — just server's score, then opponent's score.

In doubles, both players on a team get a chance to serve before the serve passes to the other team. The first player to serve in that team's turn is "Server 1"; if they fault, their partner becomes "Server 2" and serves next from their own side, without any points changing hands. Only when Server 2 also faults does a side out occur and the serve passes to the opposing team. Whoever is standing in the right/even court at the moment their team gains the serve becomes Server 1 for that turn — server numbers are about serve order, not a fixed "server 1 player" for the whole game.

To offset the natural advantage of serving first, the team that serves first in a game only gets one turn of serve before a side out — they skip the usual "two servers" allowance. This is why the game starts at a score of "0-0-2": the "2" signals that this first service turn is being treated like a team's second (and final) server, so a single fault immediately hands the serve to the other team.

A side out happens when the serving team has used up its server turns (both Server 1 and Server 2 in doubles, or the single server in singles / the first-server exception) without scoring further. The serve — and the chance to score — passes to the other team. No points are awarded on a side out itself; it just changes who's serving.

Imagine Team A serves first. Score starts 0-0-2 (first-server exception). Team A wins the rally: score is now 1-0-2, same player keeps serving. Team A faults on the next serve: side out — serve passes to Team B. Team B's turn starts fresh at server 1: score is called 0-1-1 (Team B's score first since they're now serving). If Team B's first server faults, their partner becomes server 2 — score stays 0-1-2, no side out yet. If server 2 also faults, it's a side out back to Team A, and Team A resumes at server 1.

In singles there's only one server per side, so there's no first-server exception and no "server 1 / server 2" — every lost rally while serving is an immediate side out. Score is called as two numbers: server's score, then receiver's score. Your serving position (right or left court) is always determined by your own score: even, serve from the right; odd, serve from the left.

When the serve changes teams, nothing about the score resets — the game simply continues. The new serving team's players keep whatever court positions they were last standing in (from the last time they served), and whoever is in the right/even court becomes Server 1 for that turn. This is why keeping track of your side of the court matters even while you're receiving.

In doubles, a team keeps serving — alternating between its two players — until both have faulted in that turn (or, on the very first service turn of the game, until the single starting server faults). Partners don't get to choose serve order freely mid-game: it's determined by whoever is standing in the right-hand court when the team gains the serve.

When the serving team wins a rally, the two partners swap sides with each other (right becomes left, and vice versa), which keeps the correct player lined up with the correct side for the new score's parity. When a team is receiving, or when a serve turn simply passes from one partner to the other without scoring, positions don't change — players stay right where they were standing.

A serve is hit diagonally into a specific service box, so only the player standing in that box is the legal receiver. Their partner cannot step over and return the serve instead — if they do, it's treated as if the serve wasn't returned properly, and the point goes to the serving team.

Since two players share one half of the court in doubles, clear verbal communication (who's taking the shot, whether a ball is in or out) is essential — it's not a formal rule with a penalty, but it's the single biggest difference in how doubles is played compared to singles, and it dramatically cuts down on avoidable errors and mid-court collisions.

There's no rule restricting where the non-serving partner stands during a serve — they commonly stand just behind the non-volley zone line, ready to move in, while their partner serves from the baseline. Just like the server, though, they still can't be standing inside or touching the kitchen when the ball is served or during any volley.

Since there's only one player per side, your serving position is simply tied to your own score: even score, serve from the right/even court; odd score, serve from the left/odd court. There's no server-number concept to track, which makes singles scoring noticeably simpler than doubles.

Because there's only one server per team in singles, there's no first-server exception to worry about and no partner to fall back on. Lose the rally on your serve, and it's an immediate side out to your opponent, every time.

Singles uses the exact same court dimensions as doubles, including the full 20-foot width. With only one player per side, singles tends to reward strong groundstrokes, court coverage, and stamina more than the soft-game dinking battles that dominate doubles.

A volley is simply striking the ball before it touches the ground. The kitchen (non-volley zone) rule only restricts volleys — you're free to enter the kitchen at any time to hit a ball that has already bounced (a groundstroke), including dinks that land inside it.

There's a common myth that pickleball players can never step into the kitchen. In reality, you can walk, stand, or play a shot from inside the kitchen at any time — the only restriction is that you cannot volley the ball while any part of you is touching the non-volley zone or its line. Once the ball has bounced, the kitchen is just normal court.

As long as the ball has bounced, there is no restriction on hitting it from inside the non-volley zone. This is what makes the classic pickleball "dink" rally possible — players routinely stand at or near the kitchen line and hit soft groundstrokes to each other from just inside the zone.

This is the single most misunderstood kitchen rule. If you volley the ball while standing outside the non-volley zone, but your own momentum then causes you, your paddle, your clothing, or anything you're carrying to touch the kitchen or its line before you've fully regained a stable position outside it, that's a fault. It doesn't matter that you were legally outside the kitchen at the moment of contact — what happens right after the shot still counts.

You're allowed to jump up from behind the non-volley zone line, volley the ball at the top of your jump, and land — but you must land completely outside the kitchen. If either foot touches the kitchen or the line when you come down, it's a fault, even though you were airborne and "legal" at the moment you actually struck the ball.

There's nothing illegal about jumping to hit a volley — plenty of competitive players do it. The only requirement is that you leave the ground from outside the non-volley zone and return to the ground outside it as well. It's the landing spot, not the jump itself, that most often causes a fault.

The line marking the non-volley zone is considered part of the non-volley zone. So touching the line with your foot, paddle, or anything else while volleying is exactly the same fault as standing fully inside the kitchen — there's no partial credit for "just touching the line."

A few myths trip up almost every new player: (1) You are allowed to stand in the kitchen all day, as long as you don't volley from there. (2) It's not just about your feet — if your paddle touches the kitchen surface or line during or immediately after a volley (for example, following through low), that's still a fault. (3) A ball you hit that bounces in the kitchen and then goes out is a completely normal, legal shot — the kitchen is playable court once the ball has bounced.

The double bounce rule means the serve and the return of serve must each bounce once before anyone can volley. Hitting either of those shots out of the air is an automatic fault against whoever volleyed it.

If any part of a player — feet, paddle, clothing — is touching the non-volley zone or its boundary line at the moment they volley the ball, that's a fault, regardless of where the ball ends up.

If you hit the ball and it lands outside the boundary lines on the other side of the court (long, wide, or into the net), that's a fault charged to you or your team. This includes hitting the ball into the net without it crossing over.

Once the ball has crossed to your side, you must hit it before it touches the ground a second time. A double bounce on your own side ends the rally in the other team's favor, whether you were slow to react or simply misjudged the ball.

The ball has to be hit with a single, clean stroke of the paddle. Scooping, carrying, or "slinging" the ball off the paddle face (rather than striking it) is a fault, and so is a player's paddle or body touching the ball twice on the same shot attempt.

A player (or their paddle or clothing) touching the net or the net post during a rally is a fault. You also can't reach over the net to hit the ball while it's still on your opponent's side — your paddle may only cross the net plane after contact, as a natural follow-through, and only if the ball itself was struck on your own side.

At the moment the server strikes the ball, both feet must be behind the baseline and within the imaginary extensions of the centerline and sideline for that service box. Landing over the line, or having a foot drift outside the box, before you make contact is a foot fault.

A serve is a fault if it doesn't clear the net and land in the correct diagonal service court beyond the kitchen line, or if the serving motion itself is illegal (overhand contact, contact above the waist on a non-drop serve, and so on). Any of these immediately end the serve turn.

This trips up a lot of players who learned pickleball (or came from tennis) before 2021: the old "let serve" rule, where a net-clipping serve was replayed, has been removed. Today, if a serve touches the net and still lands in the correct diagonal service court, it's simply a good, legal serve — play continues exactly as normal. If it clips the net and lands out, or in the wrong box, it's just an ordinary fault.

A "dead ball" situation stops the rally and replays it from the previous score, with no point or side out awarded. This happens for things like a ball rolling onto the court from a neighboring game, a paddle breaking mid-swing, or an official stopping play to correct an error. It's different from a let-serve — a dead ball can happen at any point in a rally, not just on the serve.

If a ball, person, or other object from outside the court interferes with a rally in progress, either player may (and should) call it immediately. The rally is stopped and replayed — this is treated as a dead ball, not a fault against either side.

A ball is only "out" if it lands completely outside the line — no part of it touching the line at all. Even the thinnest sliver of the ball catching the edge of the line counts as in. This is the same standard used in tennis.

Without a referee, players are responsible for calling shots that land on their own side of the court — you call your own side out or in, not your opponent's. If you can't clearly see that a ball landed out, it must be called in; the benefit of the doubt always goes to the team that hit the shot.

Any doubt about a line call should be resolved in favor of the team that hit the ball. Confidently calling a ball "out" requires that you clearly saw space between the ball and the line — a guess or a half-second glance isn't enough.

Just like any other shot, the serve is called by the side it lands on — meaning the receiving team calls whether the serve was good. If they don't make a call and play continues, the serve is treated as having been good.

In a standard game to 11, each team is allowed two timeouts of up to one minute each. Either player on a team can call one. In games played to 15 or 21 (common in tournament formats), an extra timeout is often added — check the event's specific format if you're playing competitively.

An injury timeout is called for a genuine medical issue and is tracked separately from the standard timeout count. It's not meant to be used for a strategic breather, and event officials (in sanctioned play) can intervene if it's being used that way.

In a multi-game match, there's a brief allowed break (commonly around a minute or two) between games, in addition to whatever timeouts each team used during a game. This isn't a timeout itself — it's just built into the match format.

Paddles have maximum combined length-plus-width limits and surface-texture rules (no sandpaper-like grit that would grab the ball for extra spin). For casual, recreational play, almost any pickleball paddle sold today is fine. For sanctioned tournaments, the paddle needs to be on the official approved equipment list.

Pickleball balls are perforated plastic, but indoor and outdoor versions differ: outdoor balls are slightly heavier and stiffer with more, smaller holes to handle wind and rougher outdoor courts, while indoor balls are lighter with fewer, larger holes since there's no wind to fight. Using the wrong ball for the surface makes for a noticeably worse game — outdoor balls on an indoor court often feel too fast and bouncy.

Pickleball involves a lot of quick lateral movement, so proper court shoes (tennis or pickleball-specific shoes with good lateral support) are strongly recommended over running shoes, which are built for forward motion and offer less side-to-side stability. Indoor facilities typically require non-marking soles to protect the court surface.

Recreational play has no formal clothing requirements beyond common sense and facility rules. Sanctioned tournaments sometimes have specific apparel guidelines (for example, shirts must be worn, certain logos or colors may be restricted at some events) — check the specific tournament's rules if you're competing.

It's instinctive to want to close in on the net, but doing so right after serving (or receiving) before the double bounce sequence has completed almost always leads to an accidental volley fault. Stay back until both bounces have happened, then advance.

Even experienced players get called for this. Hitting a firm volley right at the kitchen line and letting your own momentum carry a foot forward onto the line is extremely common. The fix is simple but takes practice: brace your weight and take a small step back or plant firmly, rather than stepping through your volleys.

A low, soft dink sitting near the kitchen line looks temptingly easy to smash, but the low height and short distance make it one of the highest-error shots to attack. Most points at the kitchen line are actually won by patience — resetting the ball softly until a genuinely attackable, higher ball appears.

That middle stretch of court (sometimes called "no man's land" or the transition zone) leaves you unable to easily reach balls at your feet or overheads above you. New players often get stuck there after a weak approach shot. The general rule of thumb: get all the way up to the kitchen line, or stay back at the baseline — avoid lingering in between.

Many new players drift forward into their serve and land on or over the baseline without realizing it. It's worth having a partner or observer check your serving foot position occasionally, since it's a hard thing to notice about your own motion.

It's easy to forget, but calling the score out loud before each serve — including the server number in doubles — keeps everyone honest and avoids disputes later in the game. Waiting until there's a disagreement to start calling the score is a common beginner habit worth breaking early.

At the kitchen line, fast exchanges leave almost no time to react if your paddle is hanging down at your side. Keeping the paddle up, out in front, roughly chest height, is a small habit that makes a big difference in reaction speed during quick volley exchanges.

Recreational play is usually games to 11, win by 2, best two-out-of-three games per match. Many tournaments use this same format, though some formats use a single game to 15 or 21 (still win by 2) instead of a best-of-three series — always check the specific event's format sheet, since it varies by tournament.

Sanctioned tournaments typically use a skill-rating system (often on a scale from around 2.5 to 5.0+) to group players into fair divisions, and frequently offer separate age-based brackets as well. Players self-rate or use an official rating from a sanctioning body, and events may adjust a division if it turns out to be mismatched.

Sanctioned tournaments operate under a formal code of conduct covering things like unsportsmanlike behavior, disputing calls appropriately, and equipment abuse. Referees or officials (when present) can issue verbal warnings, technical fouls, or in serious cases, disqualification.

Casual and even many tournament matches are self-officiated by the players, just like most recreational play. At higher-level or medal-round matches, however, an official referee (sometimes with line judges) may call the lines and manage the match, and players can appeal certain calls according to that event's specific rules.